Associated parks:
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When we arrived, there were already a few people waiting around the employee lot, and I got to meet some other enthusiasts for the first time.
At about 9 or so, they brought us into the park. We got 6 rides on Two Face: The Flip Side and 5 on Wild One before the park opened. The great people at SFA were nice enough to give us some donuts and drinks, too. Finally, at 11:30, they brought us over to Batwing and Superman: Ride of Steel for some mini-ERT.
Batwing was great, and I think I enjoyed it moreso than I did X-Flight. It also didn't help X-Flight's chances seeing that I didn't need to wait for 3 hours before riding Batwing. After Batwing, we headed up to Superman, which was still testing.
It was cold. Really, really cold. S:ROS was feeling it, as it was running incredibly slow. Brian, one of the nice SF folks, assures me that it usually goes much faster. I won't pass judgement on it until I can give it a fair shot.
The park has opened to the public by now, so we headed over to Roar for a quick ride, and then we left. We had planned on spending the day there, but the park was much, much smaller than I had anticipated, and we'd pretty much seen all there was to see.
Sam Marks, from Coaster Zombies, was nice enough to invite us, and I just wanted to thank him and everyone else for the great time. I'd particularly like to thank Sam for the free tickets to King's Dominion.
We left SFA at about 1 and made the 1.5 hour drive down to PKD. This place brought new meaning to the words, "ghost town". Arriving just before 3, we were able to park at the entrance, mere feat from the ticket booths.
In the four hours we were at PKD, we managed to ride everything once, except the Shockwave. We opted for another ride on Flight of Fear, instead. I was very, very impressed with this ride, and the first half in particular. It was totally disorienting and an awesome experience. I've never ridden it with OTSR's, but I can see where the lap bars have been a huge improvement.
I got a front seat ride on Volcano: The Blast Coaster as well. Again, the first time I'd ridden it, and I was again quite impressed. The hangtime in those barrel rolls was incredible.
We grabbed rides on each of their woodies, too, and I found them to be quite rerideable and enjoyable. I remember again why I liked Grizzly so much. Rebel Yell gave some good airtime on the trip out, but was a bit of a sleeper on the return.
Finally, we hopped in line for Hypersonic XLC. My impressions of the ride? Well, visually, it's not as big as I thought it was. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be, in fact. It was a little underwhelming.
The posted wait was 90 minutes, but it was actually only about 30 or so. We grabbed our seats and sat in anticipation. I was a little nervous about careening over the top of that tower. The launch was incredible, leaving me absolutely breathless. It's fast! The top of the tower gave a little airtime, but it wasn't nearly as intense as I thought it would be. The rest of the ride was surprisingly rough. I was jarred around quite a bit, and I would've expected something smoother seeing as you're riding on pneumatic tires. Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with it. I'd rather ride something less gimmicky.
Sunday, we began our drive home, stopping at Baltimore's Inner Harbor along the way. We spent a few hours wandering about the aquarium, as I'd never been to one. It was cool :)
Finally, we arrived at Great Adventure around 6 p.m. for the last few hours of operation of the season. The park was mobbed! I was in complete shock at the size of the crowds. In fact, I considered for a moment turning around and going home.
When we got to the parking toll boths, though, the attendant just waved us right through - which was really great. $10 for parking is steep at any time of day, but when there's only a few hours left, it's particularly rough. I am not sure if they usually do this, or if it was just 'cause it was their last day. But, at any rate, I appreciated it.
In the 3 hours or so we spent there, we only managed two flat rides and the Hayride to the Unknown. I wanted to get a ride on Robin, and I asked at the exit for a single, unoccupied seat, but I had no luck. I'll just have to wait 'til next year, I guess.
The Frisbee (Pendulum, they call it, I think) was awesome, as always. They ran it without lights, which I think they should do on a regular basis. Similarly, the Breakdance was cool, and running well. The Hayride to the Unknown sucked, majorly. The scariest part was looking at the hour long wait. I keep telling myself it was worth it just because you get in close to Nitro's return section.
Overall, it was a great weekend and a cool trip to end the season. Now, I shift over into skiing mode and look forward to my trip down to Florida early next year.
~ Michael ~
But, alas, we opted for the Hayride to the Unknown instead, and we'll be regretting that for awhile :)
Ride It said:
the best thing to do is go to the chiller first. the line gets really long mid-day. i went to robin first on the 28th and waited 10 minutes.
Well, we didn't arrive until 6 p.m., as we were on our way home. If we got there earlier in the day, I would've headed straight for it, of course. But, at the very least, I now have a reason to go to SFGAdv next season.
~ Michael ~
You're thinking of my Sebring, with it's NY Plates and ACE license plate cover. . . even though I'm not really a member of ACE yet :-) My parents picked that up for me while they were at Hersheypark this past summer.
Anyway, I remember seeing you :-) I was there with my girlfriend, who spent the entire time on Wild One dressed as a wizard, while I donned that ugly clown costume for a run, as well.
~ Michael ~
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